American Officials Call on Smartphone Makers to Combat “Apple-picking”

New York’s attorney general and San Francisco’s district attorney met yesterday with leading technology representatives from Apple, Samsung, Motorola, and Microsoft to devise a plan for combating increased smartphone-related thefts. “It is totally unacceptable that we have an epidemic of crime that we believe can be eliminated if the technological fixes that we believe are available are put into place,” said New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.

The meeting comes just days after Apple announced its latest operating system, iOS 7, at the company’s annual WWDC event in San Francisco. iOS 7 will include a “kill switch” that prevents a thief from turning off the anti-theft app Find My iPhone. The feature, called Activation Lock, will require an Apple ID and password to deactivate Find My iPhone protection.

Additionally, Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, and Mexico ranked smartphones as being the most important item when attending a festival – although respondents from Brazil, China, and Mexico ranked theft as the leading cause of smartphone loss in those countries.

Even with anti-theft measures baked into smartphone operating systems, thieves can still get away with their crime by simply changing SIM cards. Daniel B. Wood explains:

“The kill switch capability already exists, say software industry analysts. It would work by identifying a specific phone that has been stolen and then shutting it down. For such a program to work, though, all the providers would have to be on board, otherwise a thief could just switch carriers to use the phone.”

For iPhone users, you can activate the Find My iPhone feature by tapping Settings, then iCloud. Enable Find My iPhone, then verify that it is working by visiting the iCloud site and clicking the Find My iPhone icon.